Speaking for the rest of us, you probably aren't enjoying the site because you're the type of douchebag who'd like to resign.

The two tendencies correlate strongly.

You can always check out PayDiplomacy.

Knowing about the Home page is critical. That's the first place you should come when you come.

The game tabs at the top are just shortcuts to the games where you have pending activity or messages. There isn't a limit on how many of those tabs you can have. So the one set of games did not cause the other set to not show up.

Understanding how the website works should improve your experience.

Understanding how a game of diplomacy works should also improve your experience.

"This would not have happened if I could have resigned the first 2 games. They continue to display at the top of the screen even though I want to quit. How do you resign / surrender?"

Please understand that you must never resign. This is really frowned on as it ruins the game for other players. If ever decide that you do want to be regular part of this community you will come to seriously regret having resigns on your record. It is a mark of shame.

If resigning is important to you, then this is the wrong site for you. playdiplomacy might suit you better.

I posted in a previous thread that the website never informed me via email that my games were starting, so a turn or two was missed. In another case the announcement was beneath a bunch of other annoucements that really didn't matter so much, so I did not see it for several hours. I was put at a substantial disadvantage in all these cases, and I will not take my time and energy to play such games. If the website was not deficient in this way, then I would not be asking to leave those games. It would also be much better if we could use a preference list or first come / first served as far as country choice.

YellowJacket, your comment was out of line and you are a jerk for saying it that way. Look at things from my perspective. You do not speak for others.

Dude, the site never claimed to send emails, that's your job. The little coloured bar at the top of the screen should be enough, and you're just expected to check every day or so. Either that, or play games with longer phase times. The website isn't deficient, so don't blame missed phases on everyone but yourself. Also, the game of diplomacy itself is a random draw of countries. It's supposed to test your skills as a diplomat less so than your tactical skill with one favourite nation. And I agree somewhat with Yellowjacket, if not with his method of expressing it. Resigning is selfish and defeatist. It doesn't really help anyone, and it's kind of not very sportsmanlike. It also doesn't fit the culture of this site.

Alderian and abgemacht covered everything already, check their posts in here...

Never resign. No excuses. If your wife is kidnapped by terrorists while you are in the middle of a live game and they call you to negotiate a ransom explain to them you will call them back when the game is finished.
Your expectations of what features this site should have has no bearing on your duty to the other players. You don't need to be emailed. The game start time is clearly visible when you join. Set the alarm on your phone if that helps. You don't need an email.

I just joined the site. It was never expressed to me in any way shape or form that I would not be contacted in any way when a game starts, so i was supposed to be randomly checking back all the time for games that might start in minutes or might start weeks down the road, and the announcement of the start could be shoved well down the page. Give me a break! How hard would it be to program an email, even only when the game starts. You folks who blame me already know how things work, and did not just join the site.

Remedy the issues I brought up here. In the meantime, I will not play a game where I get a late, fatal start. That is the consequence for website communication or design deficiency. I am playing the other games, awful as they are.

Troll

Other new players don't seem to have issues about knowing to check occasionally for game updates/starts, so i don't see why you do. It could be that you are joining a large amount of games at once, and lack the organisational skills to keep track of all of them and look for updates periodically and as such you are able to miss updates getting lost in a stream of a faster phase-length game updates. Try being in only a few games when you first start out, it's easier to keep track of if you don't have a lot of time on your hands to constantly check the homepage.

I emailed my legitimate concerns to the moderator. I only joined 2 games to start, then 2 more games when I saw that those games are ruined. As I have seen on other websites, if the game does not have enough players, the start gets delayed or the game gets deleted! So how can you know for sure?

I reject that false label, spyman. I did not call anyone names, I just stated my case. Either do the same or shut up. You have a zero tolerance policy for resigning, how about turning that zero tolerance policy on your own lack of character. I tried my best to make things work here from the start and I am a victim of lack of information.

Well your either a troll or you have a victim mentality. I think the latter is the more tragic. The former is occasionally amusing, while the latter is pathetic.

This statement made me think for sure you must be trolling:

"Remedy the issues I brought up here."

lol. Who are you to issue commands? You have been here five minutes. This is a private site. The creator, Kestas (who incidently is also responsible for the code that underlies the core of playdiplomacy) can do whatever he likes.

Come on. Admit. You're not serious. You just like the attention. You're a troll.

@Flame - Your commands are not my wishes. If you don't like the way the site is run or how the games start, go the fuck away. We don't need you bitching and demanding changes. Seriously. Go away. We don't want your here with that attitude.

Well I was victimized and I am communicating so positive change results. I am serious. I took the positive suggestion someone else recommended and emailed the moderator. Go down the forum threads and you will find the initial complaint and not much else. You and others are continuing the discussion, and I am protesting mistreatment. This could be the last post of this thread, and if positive changes are made, such a threat won't appear again. So take back this false label of a troll and shut the hell up and get on with your life. Otherwise, YOU want the attention and YOU are the troll. Trolls call names and make insults. You are calling names and making insults. You are the troll here!

No changes will be made. Sorry dude. Tough shit. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

@FlameOfYah,
When I first played on this website, I too had some problems getting used to the way the site works and how everything is displayed, you'll see that these problems disappear after two games. Welcome to the site, I hope you enjoy yourself and meet some good players!

@Flame

Again, I'm sorry if your initial experience was not good; that is certainly not our intention.

Honestly, you will find few people to sympathize with your demands for change. You simply do not have the status in this community to make them. However, I do sympathize that the way this site operates was not clearly communicated to you. That is something that can/should change, imho.

And, in case it wasn't clear: I am the Site Admin, so please understand that your concern has been noted.

P.S.

Don't bother responding to the more rowdy bunch in the Peanut Gallery. I can guarantee you don't have the wherewithal to take them on.

What commands? I cannot command anyone, but I can strongly communicate a desire for positive change, having had a bad experience right off the bat. Don't you want people doing their best in the game and getting off to a proper start?

Draugnar, you are the one with the attitude, cussing, refusing positive change, being obstinate, and treating a new person rudely. And you have a lower number than I do, so who the heck are you to say if any change will be made or not? If the generation of an email can't be done, a little better documentation would help, and that is simply text Why don't you take your display of inferior communication and character and go away?

Thanks for the greeting, redhouse. If only some people on this thread communicated like you do. I did figure things out better by the 3rd or 4th game - I just did not want to be in a prior game that was permanently and perhaps fatally negatively affected. I am having some decent communications in the games, which is what I enjoy - socialization and not losing due to luck.

@Flame thanks. Don't worry about these first games; try to finish every game the best you can, even if you were set at a disadvantage. It is very important at this site to persist until the end to have the best possible result.

If you're a good player, you'll get more points in which you can play in games with better players, you will find there to be higher quality communication there and hence, much more fun (and a little less dependent on luck).

As for the ranking on the site, http://tournaments.webdiplomacy.net/theghost-ratingslist this website is generally used as a measure of quality and not so much the number of points you have.

Hi abgemacht. I followed up on your suggestion and sent the email, which I guess is redundant. What should matter is not the status of the communicator but the quality of the communication itself. The nature of Diplomacy itself exacerbates the problem - miss a turn at the beginning, and you are substantially and permanently behind. I have programmed and talk with a good friend who programs websites, so I know some things, but my skills are older and I don't know html, so I can't fix any problem I mention. I can only communicate the problems, and when the problems mess up games for good or interfere with other games, such communications will understandably be emotional, showing that I care about the games and doing well.

Flamer, take note of redhouse's mention of Ghost Rating, its a statistical measure of quality of play we use here as a more effective means than points of measuring skill. Draugnar only has 14 , but you'll find his GR of 72 to be well within the top echelon of players on the site. You become a quality player through a combination of skill, tact, and dedication, i.e. no quitting once you fall behind. It's up to you to remember to check games you signed up for, and Kestas has provided effective means of doing so through the game list in the right hand column.

@Flame

We welcome suggestions from all our members, no matter how new. My only point is that the first thing you did upon joining this site is complain in a hostile manner. Perhaps that's not the best way to join a community?

A golden thread! Welcome FlameOfYah, you're either just a simple guy getting confused by a (pretty straightforward, i think) interface. Or an absolutely fenomenal troll. The're both fine, but i really want you to be the latter.
Just for info: i did find your posts to be demanding and a bit rude. Keep em commin'

@Flame - Thos ein the know know that points don't mean shit. It's GR that means anything around here and I'm in the top 100 players on this site.

That said, sorry if I offended, but you did demand change. To quote you:

"Remedy the issues I brought up here. In the meantime, I will not play a game where I get a late, fatal start. "

That is both a demand and a threat. Personally, I will never play with you when you threaten to CD in any game that doesn't go your way.

As far as my language, this is an adult site. I honestly don't give a fuck if you are offended. You'd be offended by me IRL most likely as "fuck" is a regular part of my RL vocabulary. We've coined a phrase around here that I think serves you well. "Fucktard". It means one so stupid they don't even know *how* to fuck.

"That said, sorry if I offended"
"I honestly don't give a fuck if you are offended. "

@Flame - one more thing. I will apologize a little for my rudeness in so far as it was 5:00 am local time and I was in the middle of an all night hardcore coding session for a demo we had today at 11 AM. I was given the demo Tuesday morning and told "we need to show this Thursday at 11" to which I said "can't be done" to which they said "Sorry so late but *please*?" to which I said "You fucks owe me big time". I got it done with 8 hours at work and another 10 at home followed by taking a shower and going on into work at 6:00. So I didn't "go to bed" until around 12:30 this afternoon after being up 29+ hours straight. So for my wee hours rudeness, I'm sorry. But the point remains that I use fuck and others here do too on a regular basis. Go a set, toughen up, and stop making demands (reread what you wrote, it *was* a demand).

And as far as the coding, this site is in PHP and javascript. HTML is just the browsers way of displaying the shit on the screen. The real work is the PHP on the server and javascript on the browser. And yes, I'm a programmer too. Have been for 30 odd years. So learn some PHP and help out if you really want to see change. If I ever get some time, I hope to brush up (I'm an ASP, ASP.Net, general .Net, SQL, and Java 2 guy) and help some day.

OK, abgemacht, I'm still a little out of it. Only got four hours of the sleep this afternoon cause I didn't want to be wired tonight at 1AM and unable to sleep. But nice catch. :-)

I don't object to people making suggestions. I think it is great to float a few ideas, but I think one should be respectful. FlamofYah came across like someone who had just found a dead mouse in his meal at a restaurant, irate and demanding a refund. It was rude.

So email notifications are fine by me. That said I hardly ever check my email, so I would appreciate a phone call when my games are about to start. And I want it now!